Developing and Implementing Peer-Led Intervention to Support Staff in Long-Term Care Homes Manage Grief

Abstract

Front-line staff in long-term care (LTC) homes often form strong emotional bonds with residents. When residents die, staffs’ grief often goes unattended, and may result in disenfranchised grief. The aim of this article is to develop, implement, and assess the benefits of a peer-led debriefing intervention to help staff manage their grief and provide LTC homes an organizational approach to support them. This research was nested within a 5-year participatory action research to develop and implement palliative care programs within four LTC homes in Canada. Data specific to this debriefing intervention included questionnaires from six peer debriefers, field observations of six debriefings, and qualitative interviews with 23 staff participants. An original peer-led debriefing intervention (INNPUT) for LTC home staff was developed and implemented. Data revealed that the intervention offered staff an opportunity to express grief in a safe context with others, an opportunity for closure and acknowledgment. The INNPUT intervention benefits staff and offers an innovative, sustainable, easy to use strategy for LTC homes.

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“…Some evidence suggests that grief over residents' deaths play an overlooked role in direct care worker burnout (Boerner et al, 2017). Key recommendations for support include peer debriefing and support (Chen et al, 2019;Vis et al, 2016). Some interventions had been developed such as peer-led debriefing intervention (Vis et al, 2016), but overall few interventions have been developed or rigorously tested.…”

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“…To summarise, both palliative care and LTC work rely on emotional engagement with patients, and this can operate both as a satisfier (Nolan et al , 1994; Ablett and Jones, 2007; Sinclair, 2011) and an occupational hazard (Wakefield, 2000; Vis et al , 2016). Investigations of the emotional wellbeing of the LTC workforce have included a consistent focus on burnout ( e.g.…”